Monday, July 17, 2006

What Siddur Do You Use?

I am a bit curious, with your move away (so to speak) from Chabad, which siddur are you using now? I am assuming that you used Tehillas Hashem in the past. Do you still use it, or have you found another one? If so, which one and how is it?

A Simple Jew answers:

Since 2001, I have been using a full-size antique leather-bound Kol Yaakov HaChadash siddur from Adir Publishing. It is a standard Nusach Sefard siddur and I have grown quite attached to it since I have used it to daven for all of my three children.

I decided to use Kol Yaakov HaChadash since it was a universal chassidic siddur that was not attributed to any one type of Chassidus. I also liked it because of the large font size and more rounded typeface it uses.

Copies of this siddur can be found online here [pocket size] and here [full size]

13 Comments:

For the record, when I became religious in the 1970s, my yeshiva had Tikkun Meir siddurim, Ashkenaz and Sfard. I had grown up [when I went to shul] attending an Orthodox synagogue which davened Ashkenaz, so that was the nusach I was familiar with. But when I began learning in yeshiva, I was faced with a puzzle as to what my roots were.I wrote a letter to my grandfather, who was in Florida for the winter months, and he answered me that our family was Chassidic & used to go to a Chassidic Rebbe in Galicia. I then began to look for a Nusach Sfard that I was comfortable with.I found a Siddur that had haskomos [approbations] from Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the Chozeh of Lublin, the Kozhniter Maggid, and also from the Belzer Rebbe [R. Aharon] and the Satmar Rebbe [R. Yoel]. That seemed good enough for me!!! So I adopted the Nusach of Tefilla Yeshara - Berditchev, commonly known as the Berditchever Siddur.Although I still daven that Nusach, I now use the Biala Siddur which has Ksav Ashuris and the vowelization of Hashem's Name for Kavannos in Shmoneh Esre.

I personally use “Minchas Elozer” sidur compiled by the Munkatcher Rebe – R’ Tzvi Hersh Shapiro ztz”l (Baal Darkey Tshuvo) which was edited and completed by his son – R’ Chaim Elozer Shapiro ztz”l. (However I use it with some modifications, according to precise Kisvey Arizal).

They worked to produce a Chasidic sidur according to nusach Ari za”l. Minchas Elozer wrote a lengthy “Maymor nusach hatfilo” where he describes results of his work.

One main point here is that standard “Nusach Sfarad sidur” is a result of many sidur publishers and not a compilation of any tzadik or mekubol and therefore is very mebulbol. In short it was produces something like this: many tzadikim tried to compile Nusach Ariza”l sidur for themselves, and came with various results of it. Their chasidim followed their rebbes with this variations. Publishers (according to market demand) put all this variations in different brackets, which (brackets) with time were simply dropped! And that’s how most nusach sfarad sidurim came into being. That’s why for one who really wants to use Shaar haKoylel to the best of his ability, standard nusach Sfarad is not the best choice at all.

On the other hand, there was a need to produce a high quality sidur which is meduyek. And this was attempted by a number of tzadikim (like Baal haTania ztz”l). However here is another hidden problem, that is – a complicated history of how Kisvey Ariza”l became available in Europe. I shouldn’t write about it now, because it’s too lengthy and complex (if you want to understand it better look into kuntreys “Kisvoyni leDoyros – hishtalshelus Kisvey hoArizal” published by “Ahavas Sholoym”. In short, they became available not all at once, but different parts in different times (separated by hundreds years). Therefore many tzadikim of the past didn’t have all ksovim while they compiled their sidurim. And the problem was back – to compile the sidur which is “up to date” according to all available Kisvey Arizal. That’s what Minchas Elozer deed. (He lived not so long ago – just before the WW II).

Now a bit about R’ Rimmer’s Tfilas Chaim sidur. While I value the work of Reb Daniel Rimmer (he wrote an extensive article about many aspects of the nusach Arizal from many perspectives, and collected many sources as footnotes to the sidur showing real nusachoys from Kisvey Ari), but I don't necessarily agree to his conclusions. He discards the method of talmidey Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid to apply shaar hakoylel as a modification of nusach Ashkenaz according to Ariza”l. He even questions if they really meant it (even though in several places he explicitly says that they did, by this contradicting his own sfeykoys). Therefore I doubt that many chasidim will use his sidur practically for tfilo, but of course it is very precious as an extensive reference, nice presentation of nusach research and study manual on this subject.

Why did you stop using the nusach Ashkenaz siddur ? Is the nusach of Rashi, Tosfos, Rosh, Rama, etc., etc., which our ancestors used for so long, all of a sudden possul, to be discarded (chas vesholom !) ???

Hi, Im from Venezuela and I cant buy a siddur cuz there isnnt Jew Libraries and I cant buy it online cuz our Goverment only gives us 400$ each citizen for year to buy online and is not for all the citizen just those that have the permission. And I wanna know if you can help me to adquire a siddur, if you can scan yours and post for download it I hope that you can help me